Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Stuffed Squash

Hope everyone is having a nice Valentines. Mine was spent tonite in a boring, useless ethnobotany labs. Oh well, I got in some girl talk with my lab partners ;) We even discussed veganism and such! One girl mentioned something called lectins(??) that are in raw veggies and such that are bad for you!?!? She said the prof said it in her Food and Disease prevention course. Now I've learned to not believe everything the prof says, so I'll definitely be doing some research tonite, but I did not want to hear that!

Anyways, dinner tonite was stuffed spaghetti squash. I've never had this kind of squash before and was pleasantly surprised! It shreds when you eat it, like spaghetti strands, but to me it was like hash potatoes. It was so yummy with the lentil stuffing. The recipe is from How It All Vegan. Its super easy to do. You just have to saute the stuffing for a few minutes, stuff the squash and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes. And thats dinner! I can't wait for the leftovers tomorrow. I definitely prefer spag. squash over butternut squash, at least when its cooked in the oven. Its such a comforting, winter-y meal!














I entered all the food I was going to be eating today into fitday.com's food log to see the rough gist of how many calories, etc I was getting. I got more than enough of all the nutrients except Vitamin K. So I added 1 cup of cooked broccoli to the list, and my intake of Vitamin K shot up to over 200%! I didn't know broccoli was such a great source! I love the internet....

12 comments:

Everyday Superhero said...

Keep us posted on what you find out regarding lectins.

sarchan said...

I love spaghetti squash. I often use the fork method to separate the strands, and eat it like spaghetti in sauce. But I may have to try this method next time. Oh, and your <3 cake is really cute.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

yum. I've never had spaghetti squash. I'll look for it at the farmers' markets this spring.

Michelle said...

Lecitin is in soy and it's a brain food. It's some kind of fat that your brain uses to make neuropathways and the fatty tissue around nervendings. Maybe her prof ment it was bad to NOT get it?

Melissa said...

Michelle, that's good to know. No, basically he just kept talking about how lectins were bad. So far all I've found is that they're toxic in certain foods, cooking may reduce toxicity, but not always. I also read that it may be people with lectin sensitivities that suffer from Celiacs. I hope I can find some more info soon.

Dreena said...

Hi Melissa. I know that lecithin is in soy, but I think that might be different than the lectin that your prof is talking about? I don't know anything about lectin either, so I will check back to see if you learn anything. Probably some kind of meat-eating scare tactic!! We haven't heard of rabbits, elephants, or giraffes with lectin troubles! :) Nice food photo, btw.

Carrie™ said...

I punched lectins into the search box for Yahoo and got a few good hits. It was interesting/a bit unnerving reading. Try it and let us know your take on lectins.

Melissa said...

I am going to look more into the issue in a few days. I have a midterm tomorrow and I think I may have to go to a walk in clinic tomorrow. I woke up this morning unable to move my neck, and it was in excruciating pain. It has now spread to my upper back region too. All I can say is, thank God for leftover stuffed squash, cuz there's no way I can cook like this!

Carrie™ said...

Owww! I've had that happen to me - woke up with a stiff neck. It's friggin' painful. I actually spent almost a month immobile because of lower back pain. It's something that I've put up with for years and on Christmas, I just turned funny and I really messed it up. It wasn't even anything serious. We were at my mother-in-law's for dinner and she had this fancy tablecloth on the table and when I went to get out of my chair, I didn't want to get caught on it and pull then entire thing, dishes and all, so I sort of swung out at an odd angle and that's all it took. After trying some anti-inflamatories and not getting anywhere, I went to a chiropractor. First time ever. She has saved me! It was a rough go at first, but after a few sessions I felt almost brand new. If your neck continues to give you problems, I'd check out a chiropractor. I threw away my pills when I started and haven't needed anything at all.
In the meantime, try to ice it. It does make it feel a bit better.

Melissa said...

Thanks carrie. I'm a little wary of chiropractors, but you never know. I'm hoping I didn't do anything that's going to have long term consequences! :S. It may be because I was looking over my shoulder a bit while doing a weight lifting DVD and didn't do the neck stretches, who knows.I didn't realise it could get so bad. My boyfriend had to cradle me in bed while supporting my head and neck in order to be able to sit up!
I'll definitely try an ice pack, a heat patch didn't do much.

Carrie™ said...

I was always wary of chiropractors too. This time I was at the end of my rope and figured I'd try it. Now I'm wondering if I'd gone years ago would I have spared myself all that pain, time missed from work, etc. I did some research and they've come a long way. Just a thought. By the way, what's on the menu today? I love your food photos!

Melissa said...

I'm not sure yet what I'm making today. I will be making something though. Billy and I both have the night off so I want to make something yummy we can both enjoy!